Dominic Raab today announced the UK’s extradition treaty with Hong Kong is being ‘immediately and indefinitely’ suspended after Beijing imposed a controversial national security law.
The Foreign Secretary said the UK wants a ‘positive relationship’ with China but ‘we will be clear where we disagree’.
He said: ‘I have consulted with the Home Secretary, the Justice Secretary and the Attorney General and the Government has decided to suspend the extradition treaty immediately and indefinitely.’
Mr Raab said the extradition arrangements will not be reactivated ‘unless and until there are clear and robust safeguards which are able to prevent extradition from the UK being misused under the new national security legislation’.
He added: ‘I would just say this, the United Kingdom is watching and the whole world is watching.’
The extradition announcement came after Boris Johnson insisted he will not be ‘pushed into becoming a knee jerk Sinophobe’ as he warned Britain cannot ‘completely abandon’ its relationship with China despite rising tensions with Beijing.
The Prime Minister said the UK does have ‘serious concerns’ about China’s behaviour on issues like human rights abuses and Hong Kong.
But he said China is ‘going to be a giant factor in our lives, in the lives of our children and our grandchildren’ and as a result Britain must adopt a ‘calibrated response’ of being ‘tough on some things’ while also continuing to engage on others.
Earlier, MPs had warned the UK is ‘sliding towards a cold war’ with China and it must ‘work with its allies’ to tell Beijing ‘enough is enough’.
Tobias Ellwood, the Tory chairman of the Defence Select Committee, said it is time for a ‘reset of our entire foreign policy’ towards China after too long of ‘turning a blind eye’ to Beijing’s unacceptable behaviour.
Mr Raab’s announcement on extradition came on the same day that Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, is due to fly into the UK ahead of talks with the Foreign Secretary and Mr Johnson tomorrow.
Dominic Raab today announced the UK’s extradition arrangements with Hong Kong are being suspended
Boris Johnson, pictured during a visit to a school in Kent this morning, said the UK cannot ‘completely abandon’ engagement with China amid rising tensions with Beijing
Mr Johnson said he would not be ‘pushed into becoming a knee jerk Sinophobe’ as he called for the UK to take a ‘calibrated’ approach to dealing with China
However, while Mr Pompeo’s visit was initially viewed as a likely ‘victory lap’ over the UK’s decision to ban Chinese tech giant Huawei from the 5G network, it has now been suggested he will hold the Prime Minister’s ‘feet to the fire’ and urge even tougher action against Beijing.
Meanwhile, Mr Pompeo is due to meet with a cross-party group of 20 MPs who are seen as ‘hawks’ on China before his meeting with the Foreign Secretary and PM in a move which will be seen by some as a snub to Number 10.
Relations between Britain and China have rapidly deteriorated in recent months, with the two nations having clashed repeatedly over coronavirus, Hong Kong, Huawei and human rights.
Mr Raab’s announcement on extradition will further inflame tensions, with Beijing having already warned the UK faces retaliation over its Huawei U-turn.
Both Canada and Australia have suspended their extradition arrangements with Hong Kong and the US is considering taking the same action.
The moves come after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong which criminalises secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces but also curtails rights to protest and freedom of speech.
The rules apply outside the borders of China and this has stoked fears Beijing could try to use the extradition mechanism to drag any overseas residents involved in pro-democracy activism back to Hong Kong. The UK does not have an extradition treaty with China.
Britain has already offered a route to UK citizenship for up to three million Hong Kongers with British National (Overseas) status in response to the law being put in place.
Mr Johnson was asked this morning if the UK is going to reset its relationship with China and he replied: ‘Let’s be very clear, there is a balance here and I am not going to be pushed into a position of becoming a knee jerk Sinophobe on every issue, somebody who is automatically anti-China.
‘But we do have serious concerns. We have concerns about the treatment of the Uighur minority, obviously about the human rights abuses.
‘We obviously have concerns about what is happening in Hong Kong and you will be hearing a bit later on from the Foreign Secretary about how we are going to change our extradition arrangements to reflect our concerns about what is happening with the security law in Hong Kong.
‘We have to think about the human rights, the rights of the people of Hong Kong to participate in democratic processes.’
He added: ‘What we won’t do, as I say, is completely abandon our policy of engagement with China.
‘China is a giant fact of geopolitics, it is going to be a giant factor in our lives, in the lives of our children and our grand children.
‘We have got to have a calibrated response and we are going to be tough on some things but also we are going to continue to engage.’
The shift on extradition came a week after the Government announced it is banning Huawei from the UK’s 5G network, with all of the firm’s technology to be stripped out by the end of 2027.
China is likely to dominate discussions during talks between Mr Pompeo, Mr Raab and Mr Johnson tomorrow.
The ‘hawk’ MPs Mr Pompeo is also due to meet with believe the US Secretary of State will urge Mr Raab and Mr Johnson to further strengthen the UK’s stance against China.
The move by the Foreign Secretary comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to fly into the UK for talks with Mr Raab which will be dominated by China
One source told The Telegraph: ‘The visit has been written up as a victory lap, but that is plainly wrong.
‘The Americans are not even remotely satisfied and the purpose of this trip is to hold the Prime Minister ‘s feet to the fire.’
Mr Ellwood, a former defence minister, warned last night that the UK is ‘sliding towards a cold war’ with China having ‘been duped over the last couple of decades’ by Beijing.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour programme: ‘I really want to see a reset of our entire foreign policy, bearing in mind that we are sliding towards a cold war, we can’t do this on our own, we need to work with our allies.
‘We turned a blind eye to what was going on with the Uighur population, we turned a blind eye to the uneven trade situation whereby Chinese companies could operate quite liberally within the UK and elsewhere but our companies couldn’t operate within China and now I think it’s time to say enough is enough.’
China accused the UK of ‘dancing to America’s tune’ in the wake of the Huawei U-turn. The White House has long urged its allies not to use the firm’s technology over national security concerns – concerns Huawei has always rejected.
Tensions increased yesterday as Mr Raab accused Beijing of being responsible for ‘gross egregious human rights abuses’.
China’s Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, was confronted during a BBC interview with video footage of Uighur people being detained and forced onto a train in Xinjiang province.
Mr Liu dismissed claims of human rights abuses as ‘false accusations’ as he hit back at suggestions that the UK could impose sanctions on Chinese government officials involved in any such action.
He said: ‘That is totally wrong. We never believe the unilateral sanction. We believe that the UN has the authority to you know impose sanctions, and if the UK government goes that far, goes that far to impose sanctions on any individuals in China, China will certainly make resolute response to it.
‘You have seen what happened between China and the United States. They sanctioned Chinese officials, we sanctioned their Senators, their officials.
‘I do not want to see this tit for tat that has happened in China, UK relations. I think UK should have its own independent foreign policy rather than dance to the tune of Americans, like what happened to Huawei.’